Vista - Vista cannot search for text in files unless file extension is a manually added.

My scenario is quite simple.

I manage a number of sites that upload their activity log as text files using names like:
company1.20080814
company2.20080814
. . .
company1.20080815
company2.20080815

If I have 50+ local Vista users trying to search this upload folder for values within these TEXT files, but no results return. It is impractical/impossible for me to visit all 50+ machines DAILY and add the extension type to the list of "Plain Text Filter" files so that Vista can treat those files as text.

Is there any way to get Vista to search through these files without having to manually add the extension types to the list. Whether indexing is on or off, Vista's search will skip files if they have unknown extension types.

VistaSufferer.

P.S. Please don't respond to this thread unless you have tested my scenario and create the text files with extensions as I have stated.

On Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:54:58 -0500, VistaSufferer <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:Actually, this issue is not specific to Vista. A better place to post it is in the
MSDN Windows Desktop Search forum:

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/Sho...D=847&SiteID=1

The MSFT search people sometimes respond there.

Otherwise, since you can't rewrite WDS, consider modifying the logging software, if
you wrote it. The date info could be included in the file name, like
company1-20080815.txt or 20080815-company1.txt. If you bought the software, then by
all means urge the vendor to upgrade it for compatibility with the current version of
Windows Desktop Search.

Doug M. in NJ

"VistaSufferer" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:ec2038d6cb19de25c0cc745e90fd848a@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Why not use a file manager that simply searches the contents of *every* file
you want, independent of its extension?! For example XYplorer
(http://www.xyplorer.com).

Your use case:
(1) Limit the range of searched files using this name pattern: company*.2*
(2) Enter the values you are looking for into the contents field.
(3) Press F3 to start the search.

More info here:
http://www.xyplorer.com/tour/index.php?page=find

Don

If vista is so good why should someone have to buy extra software to do
simple tasks like look for a file?

"Donald Lessau" wrote:

A. You don't have to use Vista
B. You don't have to like Vista
C. You don't have to buy special software.
D. There is a need to learn Vista or any modern operating system
E. There is freeware software to do most tasks on most operating systems.

F. Moaning about Vista is useless.
G. Taking care of your situation is useful.

Good luck.

"John" <John@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:FCCD60D5-2D2E-41D0-A9A0-1EDFA44D8280@xxxxxx

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:10:09 -0700, John <John@xxxxxx> wrote:
You are missing the point. First, this issue is not specific to Vista. Versions 3
and 4 of WDS also run on XP and Windows Server 2008.

Second, the OP's problem is that his software developer made the unusual decision to
store data in the log file extension. That is a problem for any content search tool
because it means that all files in the specified location (regardless of extension)
have to be searched to find the desired content. If the number of files present is
large, the search could be very slow.

A case could be made that WDS should include an option to "ignore file extensions
when searching content". However, I suspect that few people would use it.

The OP's situation is unusual, and I think that it was reasonable for Donald to
suggest a third-party tool. The catch is that the OP has 50+ users to deal with,
meaning 50+ copies of the tool would be needed. My choice would be to put the dates
in the file names rather than in the extensions.

Doug M. in NJ

Thank you all for your suggestions and replies.
It's good that we can discuss issues even with opinions both positive and negative.

But Doug is right. I'm caught in the middle. My users keep telling me that they go to the "Search" tab of "Folder Options" and set the search criteria to "Always search file names and contents (might be slow)", but nothing appears.

Sure, I might be able to fix this one case by modifying files to have a .TXT extension, but there are many places where we deal with other files with bizarre extensions.

Until Microsoft wakes up to this oversight in WDS, I'm stuck training users on how to run "FINDSTR" in a DOS prompt, or directing them to 3rd party software vendors to perform the most basic of text file searching.

I'm quite disappointed.
VistaSufferer